VMware scoops up hot email startup Boxer

While VMware parent company EMC has generated plenty of attention with its massive $ 67 billion merger with Dell, VMware itself has made a deal of its own with the purchase of email and task management startup Boxer.

The acquisition, announced today at the company’s annual european VMworld event, is part of VMware’s strategy to provide apps for use with its data management platform. A hit with those running Cyanogen, Boxer initially started as a consumer-facing mobile email app that makes it easier for people to quickly sift through a backlog of messages, and speeding up the process of creating and assigning tasks. It later expanded its focus to enterprise-level customers, adding better security along with it.

Now, that might not seem like a big deal, but it is when you consider the range of popular cloud-based services Boxer integrates with (Box, Dropbox, Evernote, Facebook, Gmail, iCloud, Salesforce, Twitter, Outlook, Yahoo, etc.). And businesses whose employees use these services on the job can be more confident that company data is secure.

The Boxer team will join the company’s Airwatch unit, working towards launching a suite of secure apps for the enterprise, according to VMware CTO Noah Wasmer, who called Boxer a “consumer-grade” enterprise app.

“For business users, the most mission critical application is email, followed quickly by content and business apps that contain the data, insights, and information to master their job,” said Wasmer in a company blog post today. “We all love the native email experience across iOS and Android devices but what if they were optimized for businesses with the security and control that they require? This is why we are doubling down with the planned acquisition of Boxer, Inc.”

Financial terms of the acquisition deal were not disclosed. Austin-based Boxer previously raised $ 3 million in funding.